Name Lawrence Farwell | ||
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Education University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Harvard University | ||
Risk Roundup Webcast: Brain Fingerprinting
Lawrence (Larry) Farwell is an American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He invented brain fingerprinting and the first EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI). He discovered the P300-MERMER brain response and applied it in forensic neuroscience, brain-computer communication, and other fields.
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In addition to his brain fingerprinting research at the CIA, the FBI, the US Navy, and elsewhere and his publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, he has applied brain fingerprinting to detect the presence or absence of concealed crime-relevant information stored in the brains of suspects in criminal cases, and has testified as an expert witness on this science in court. He has patented brain fingerprinting, the P300-MERMER, and applications of this technology in the early detection of Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive deficits. He has conducted and published research on neuroscience, psychophysiology, physics, mathematics, and the relationship between consciousness and matter.
Career
Larry Farwell earned his BA from Harvard University and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
He has served as a research associate at Harvard Medical School and as a consultant to the CIA. He has conducted laboratory and field brain fingerprinting research at the CIA, the FBI, the US Navy, and elsewhere.
He founded Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, Inc. where he is Chairman and Chief Scientist. The company was started in Iowa and moved to Seattle.
TIME Magazine selected Dr. Farwell to the TIME 100: The Next Wave, the 100 top innovators who may be "the Picassos or Einsteins of the 21st century."
Scientific discoveries and inventions
Dr. Farwell’s scientific discoveries and inventions are in the field of neuroscience, psychophysiology, and in particular electroencephalography (EEG). He invented and developed the technique of brain fingerprinting, which applies EEG and event-related potentials (ERPs) in the detection of concealed information stored in the brain.
Brain fingerprinting and Dr. Farwell's expert-witness testimony on it have been ruled admissible as scientific evidence in court in the US. He applied brain fingerprinting to prove that the record stored in the brain of Terry Harrington did not match the record of the murder for which Harrington had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Harrington was ultimately released. Dr. Farwell applied brain fingerprinting to prove that serial killer J. B. Grinder did have the record of the murder of Julie Helton stored in his brain. Grinder confessed and was sentenced to life in prison.
Farwell stated: "From a scientific perspective, we can definitively say that brain fingerprinting could have substantial benefits in identifying terrorists or in exonerating people accused of being terrorists."
Dr. Farwell and his colleague Emanuel Donchin invented the first EEG-based brain-computer interface, which used electrical brain responses to communicate directly from the human brain to a computer and speech synthesizer.
He invented a method for applying EEG and event-related brain potentials in the early detection of Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive deficits.
Dr. Farwell conducted research on the relationship between consciousness and matter in collaboration with his father, University of Washington physics professor George Farwell. They used nuclear physics apparatus measuring alpha particle decay of plutonium to scientifically investigate the interactions between consciousness, matter, and quantum-mechanical processes. He wrote a book on modern neuroscience, modern physics, and the role of consciousness in the universe entitled How Consciousness Commands Matter: The New Scientific Revolution and the Evidence that Anything Is Possible.